Big Mal's masterplan: a team of Peter CrouchsUpdated: December 20th, 2006
I’ve just been reading Rodney Marsh’s brilliant autobiography Priceless. The book is full of great stories but my favourite involves Marsh introducing a member of the US national team committee to Malcolm Allison.
After being appointed chief executive of the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Marsh hired Allison as head coach in 1988. Things started badly, with Marsh getting a call from the local police one night informing him that Allison had been arrested after driving down the wrong side of a road at 8mph completely drunk.
But it was a meeting with Cornelia Corbett, the wife of Tampa Bay’s owner and a member of the US national team committee, that made Marsh realise that Big Mal probably wasn’t the man for the job.
Marsh had put Allison’s name forward for the then vacant position of coach to the US national side and Corbett had agreed to meet him at a Tampa restaurant to hear his plans. Allison had already finished a bottle of Dom Perignon by the time Corbett and Marsh arrived, and was clearly the worse for wear.
Undaunted, Corbett asked Allison what his plans for American soccer were:
‘Well,’ said Malcolm with a serious look on his face, ‘you’ve got so many big people in this country that I would only have players six feet six inches tall and above in the side. And because of that, all our tactics would be in the air…’
And that was the last America saw of Malcolm Allison.
~ Priceless: My Autobiography is available from Amazon here
priced £6.39 (+p&p) new, or from £3.10 (+p&p) used.